Devil takes hit at SEC women’s session

DEL CITY—Rachael Jackson, a former Apache helicopter pilot, told participants at the Women’s Session of the State Evangelism Conference, that the Apache “shoots big guns.”

But each of the three speakers at the annual event at Del City, First Southern Jan. 26, had their own “big guns” aimed straight at the devil.

Jackson told the more than 300 women that their greatest weapon against the devil is their testimony.

“When you share your story, you kick the devil in the face,” she emphasized.

Jackson said she thought it was pretty awesome and cool that a girl got to be an Apache pilot.

“That’s what people knew about me,” she said. “Also, I have a handsome husband and two adorable kids, and I love God.” But when a friend, who had breast cancer, two knee replacements, and was struggling financially and with depression and obesity, told Jackson she had no reason not to love God because of the kind of life she had, Jackson said her friend didn’t really know her.

“She didn’t know my parents divorced when I was 4, my mom moved us to California, I thought my dad didn’t care, my mom remarried and her husband abused me,” Jackson related. “As I grew up, I made bad decisions, got into drugs and boys. I was a lying, stealing horrible person. When I moved out of our home at 16, my mom called an Army recruiter.

“God rescued me through the Army. It gave me a mission that was bigger than myself, but I was still broken.”

She said she began having physical problems, and was going to get kicked out of the Army.

“They were taking away my career, my purpose,” she said. “For four years, I was on my knees before God. I learned to talk to Him and listen to Him talk to me. God started putting the pieces back together. Had it not been for God, I would have been barefoot, pregnant and selling drugs.”

Jackson said God reminded her of all the experiences she’d been through and told her, “You are going to reach millions, and your crowd is going to be doubters and atheists.”

She started a blog, but realized she needed a bigger platform to share her story. Thus was born the magazine Shattered, which uses stories to break down barriers to knowing Jesus and equips people to share Him with others. Jackson is editor-in-chief of the quarterly publication.

“I can give people the magazine as a way to plant seeds,” she noted. “The church should be full of people sharing their stories, but those stories really count in the marketplace.”

The first 300 women at the event received a free copy of Shattered magazine to read and then share with a lost person.

She admonished the women that before they share their story, to make sure it’s about God’s glory and not theirs.

“When you are shattered, you have an opportunity to share God in ways you otherwise never could,” she said. “You are part of an army, too. You are soldiers.”

Amy Aduddell, a second grade teacher from Edmond, and wife of the pastor of Vintage Church, said she grew up with a sister who was a fabulous artist, but shortly after she was married, she was killed by a drunk driver.

“At that moment, you need a Savior,” she said. “My praying became crying, liquid prayers. But I kept believing and God healed my heart.”

She said what made her angriest was the fact that her sister never got to use her talent for Christ.

“I asked God for some of the talent my sister had, and told him I would pick up where she left off. I was going to make the devil sorry he messed with my family,” she admitted.

Aduddell explained that God will take the broken pieces of your life and put them together in ways you can’t imagine.

“My first painting was a cross I had traced,” she revealed. “Then I saw a man painting the face of Jesus, and I tried it. It had to be God. Then I painted Jesus’ hand, and just kept painting.”

She said if God has given you something, He’s asking you to take that little drop and do something with it.

A friend’s worship leader wanted to know if Aduddell sold her paintings. He wanted to use them at a Good Friday service. As Aduddell attended that service and watched people giving their lives to Christ, she knew she had a part in it.

Later, a banker called and wanted to place her art in the bank for a month.

“That led to the Gospel in the marketplace,” she said. “I knew God was answering my prayer.”

Aduddell also donated one of her paintings as a door prize at the event.

Laci Thompkins, a Carnegie art teacher and basketball coach, said she had no trouble bragging on God, using the four Ps of Prayer, Purpose, Passion and Power.

“Pray for opportunity and courage to share the Gospel, and pray for people God has laid on your heart,” she emphasized.

She urged the women to witness with purpose and a recruiter’s mind.

“Set goals and be intentional wherever you are—at work, the beauty shop, the dentist,” she admonished. “And be so passionate, Jesus just pours out of you.”

She said her intimacy with God gives her power.

“Your testimony has the power of the blood of Jesus Christ,” she said. “When you think you’re weak, God makes you mighty. Splash the living water wherever you are.”

As the women’s session concluded, attendees gathered together in groups of two or three and prayed for the lost.

Translator

Messenger Staff

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